Sunday, September 29, 2013

Kate Stewart is a medical sociologist working at the University of Nottingham; Matthew Cole is a sociologist teaching with The Open University. Kate and Matthew speak with ARZone about the work they've done examining how children "learn the difference between animals they eat and animals they love". They discuss how the culture into which children are born shapes who they will become, in particular how popular representations of other animals in movies and their associated promotional tie-in products (especially fast-food "kid's meals") influence children. Audio podcast, approx 65 mins.

This podcast focuses on the ideas that Kate & Matthew developed in their article "The Conceptual Separation of Food and Animals in Childhood". They and their publisher have been kind enough to provide ARZone and our audience with access to the entire text of the article; please take the time to read it (Click Here). Also, please review this short slideshow; it presents "Figure One" - something that's referred often in the podcast. Check them out!

For the past decade Kate Stewart has had a particular research interest in how information about food is interpreted and applied. This work led to her first collaborative work with Matthew, -- 'The Conceptual Separation of Food and Animals in Childhood', which was published in Food, Culture and Society in 2009. Their first book together, 'Our Children and Other Animals: The Cultural Construction of Human-Animal Interaction in Childhood' will be published by Ashgate early next year.

Matthew Cole has research interests in how the human use of other animals is made to appear normal and acceptable, and in how vegans and veganism are represented (and often misrepresented) in popular culture, for instance in media including television and film.